Halcyon
by fengbi
Summary: Adrienette is trending online because of a Buzzfeed article. So, Adrien and Marinette read it together. "Top 8 times Adrien Agreste and Marinette Dupain-Cheng were 'hashtag couple goals?" Marinette read aloud. "Well, this should be interesting."


"Princess! Look at this! We're trending again!" Adrien excitedly burst into the living room with his laptop in tow.

"Mmm," Marinette hummed distractedly in response. She was perched on the couch, knees tucked against her chest. Absentmindedly, she doodled sketches in a notepad, already brainstorming for next year's spring collection. Her debut weeks earlier at the Paris Fashion Week for Menswear and Haute Couture had been a massive success. The critics had loved her _Tikki_ line and she was already overwhelmed with how many retailers were interested in _Tikki_. Certainly, Marinette was thrilled, but she had almost no employees and needed to begin mass production on _Tikki_.

And with the next fashion week coming up in two weeks, Marinette was scrambling a bit.

A couple metres before her, the TV was airing some cheesy Chinese dating show that Marinette had flipped to fill the room with some background noise.

"Bugaboo," Adrien whined, slightly put down by Marinette's lack of interest. "We're trending!"

Again, Marinette hummed in acknowledgement but continued her doodling without looking up from her paper.

Frowning, Adrien placed his laptop on the vacant spot beside Marinette. He moved to stand behind the couch, directly behind Marinette and rested his hands on her shoulders. "Princess, you're so tense. You should take a break before your muscles shrivel up," Adrien said, fingers rubbing circles against Marinette's neck and back.

"Mmm I only have two weeks to have my collection ready for Paris Fashion Week," Marinette protested Adrien's distraction, but still tilted her head back in pleasure. "I'm only halfway finished stitching the last revision for my _Miraculous_ line and I'm so behind and I've already had critics and investors asking about stuff for next year and I don't even know anything about math or investing and -"

"But you aren't sewing right now," Adrien said as he increased the pressure he was exerting on Marinette's sore muscles. "And you haven't taken a break in months. Mari, you can't forget to take of yourself."

Marinette tried to turn around to face Adrien, but his grip on her shoulders kept her facing forward. "I'm taking a break right now! From stitching! I can handle it!"

"Doing more work isn't a break, Princess," Adrien stopped Marinette's tirade, continuing to massage her tense muscles. "You hired employees for a reason. Juleka can handle mass production and touch ups. Max will deal with the business side of things."

"But I always hand stitch the runway outfits -"

Adrien cut off Marinette's protests, "And you still have two weeks to do that. Come on, Princess, humour me."

Huffing, Marinette leaned into Adrien's hands. She set her pencil and sketchbook to the side and let Adrien ease the knots out of her back. Though she was loath to admit, Adrien's hands felt like heaven against her tight muscles.

Satisfied that Marinette was finally taking a proper break, Adrien released one of her shoulders to reach for the laptop he had left beside her earlier.

"So as I was saying earlier," Adrien placed the laptop into Marinette now vacant lap, "we're trending again! Apparently Buzzfeed wrote this article on us and now we're trending. I thought we could go through it together."

" _Top 8 times Adrien Agreste and Marinette Dupain-Cheng were 'hashtag couple goals'_?" Marinette read aloud. "' _Eight: that time when Adrien and Marinette dressed up as Ladybug and Chat Noir for Halloween.'_ I can't believe this is listed! It was only because I forgot about Halloween!"

Underneath the subtitle was a photo Adrien had shared on his instagram during Alya's Halloween party a couple years back. He and Marinette had "switched" miraculous, with Marinette being Chatte Noire and Adrien being Ladybug. Marinette had even tied two little pigtails into Adrien's hair to complete the look. Using her old red ribbons, of course.

Smirking, Adrien said, "Well I, for one, can believe it. I do make a purr-fect ladybug after all. And you know how Americans always make a big deal about Halloween. Plus, we have the best Ladybug and Chat Noir costumes in the world since you made them." Adrien leaned down to place a kiss on the side of Marinette's head.

"I do know a bit more about Ladybug and Chat Noir's outfits than the average retailer."

"How did you ever manage to get Chat's tail to stay off the ground, though?"

Tilting her head back so Adrien could see her face, Marinette grinned cheekily. "Now that, _mon chaton_ , is privileged information."

Feigning hurt, Adrien cried dramatically, "Oh, how you wound me!" Whilst Marinette laughed at his dramatics, Adrien leaned forward to scroll down the page. "' _Seven: when Adrien and Marinette shared Adrien's pocket'._ Oh that was in Québec! Remember? During Carnival? We had so much maple syrup that day! I think father would have had a stroke if he'd known how much sugar I had that day."

"Natalie would too," Marinette laughed. She had imagined a comical and over dramatic image of what she guessed Gabriel Agreste's reaction to maple syrup would be. "But to be fair, you eat that much sugar everyday."

"Father and Nathalie still cringe when anything remotely sweet are within a metre of my mouth. So do my model friends."

"Yes," Marinette sighed melodramatically, "they have cringed the two times you have had the opportunity to consume sugar in their presence. Though I think your model friends cringe because of quantity of sweets you eat, not the sugar itself. You do eat far more than the recommended sugar intake. Like, a month's worth of sugar everyday."

"Still have that hot model bod though," Adrien winked. "Carnival was great. We should go back sometime with Nino and Alya."

"We could go snowshoeing! And we could do the team skis so Alya and I can kick your guys' butts."

"No way, it's too cold in Canada. You'd be a frozen little Bugaboo without me."

"I would not!" Marinette huffed indignantly.

"Princess, I hate to break it to you but you have no tolerance for the cold," Adrien said in a teasing tone that clearly showed he did not hate breaking the news to Marinette at all. "You even had to stick your hand into my pocket to ward off frostbite," he looked pointedly at the picture included in the article.

The photo had been sneakily taken by a fan, and it depicted Marinette and Adrien standing in line together for a sleigh ride. Adrien had stuffed his hands into his pockets. Indeed, Marinette had slipped one of her hands into Adrien's pocket too.

"Well."

"Well?" Adrien prompted her.

"Well maybe I just wanted to hold your hand." A light blush tinted Marinette's cheeks and Adrien couldn't help but kiss her right then.

"Well I definitely wanted to hold your hand too," Adrien smiled, kissing Marinette's forehead before pulling away.

As Adrien resumed massaging Marinette's back, Marinette scrolled further down the page.

"' _Six: when Adrien wears Marinette's scarves.'"_

Under the caption was a compilation of a dozen photos of Adrien at various events wearing an assortment of different scarves. Red scarves, green scarves, wool scarves, infinity scarves, and the classic blue scarf that had been Marinette's first gift to him. Adrien was so notoriously picky about scarves that he only wore scarves tailored just for him. And that meant he only wore scarves designed by and hand knit by Marinette. And the press swooned over that fact.

"You do look pretty good in that red one," Marinette remarked.

"Pretty good?" Adrien feigned offense. "I look purr-fectly fabulous in red!"

"But you haven't worn that scarf in a while."

Feeling that the tension had mostly left Marinette's shoulders, Adrien moved to sit beside Marinette on the couch. One arm wrapped around her waist, his hand continued rubbing her back. "Red is my lucky colour. And that's my lucky scarf. I have to save it for when my lucky charm isn't around to ward off all the bad luck."

"Mmm," Marinette hummed, unconsciously leaning into Adrien's side. "And what would that lucky charm be?" she asked innocently, knowing what the answer was.

Adrien pulled Marinette closer. "My princess, of course. The only one who looks better in red than me." He ended his declaration with an affectionate tap on Marinette's nose. She giggled, scrunching up her nose.

While Marinette was distracted, Adrien scrolled down to read the next caption. "' _Five: when Marinette tied Adrien's tie_ '. Remember that? Our first red carpet together and you spent half of it fussing with my tie!"

Cheeks flushing, Marinette buried her face in Adrien's chest. "It was crooked," she said, voice muffled by Adrien's shirt. "I couldn't let you walk down the red carpet with a crooked tie! The fashion critics would have slaughtered you!"

"I bet I could make crooked ties fashionable. I'd rock that rebel bad boy look," Adrien laughed as Marinette tried to burrow deeper into his chest. "Those photographers were so desperate to get you to just look at them. I guess pictures of your back just aren't worth as much."

"I had to fix your tie! What kind of girlfriend would I have been if I just let you, a world class supermodel, walk around all evening with a crooked tie!"

Adrien leaned closer to the laptop screen, feigning a closer examination of his tie in the photo. "Hmm, looks perfectly straight to me, my lady. You sure you needed the entire length of the carpet to fix it?"

"Okay, fine, I just didn't want to look at all the cameras. That was my first red carpet!" Marinette jerked back, cheeks aflame. "The first time I had to be in front of cameras without Tikki! Without Ladybug! And it was all live and I couldn't make a mistake!"

"I knew it!" Adrien laughed as Marinette glowered at him. "I just wanted to hear you say it."

Shifting so her back rested against Adrien's side, Marinette grumbled. Still chuckling softly, Adrien read the next caption. " _Four: When Adrien was asked what he loved about Marinette._ Oh, I remember this interview! You were in China with Mama during this one so you never saw it, but this was a great interview."

"...is this the one where you spent the entire fifteen minutes talking about me and nothing else? The station that banned you?"

"Hey, that's only the condensed version of why I love you!" Adrien defended himself. "Those producers just have no taste."

"Chaton, weren't you supposed to be promoting your partnership with Unicef?"

"Well if they wanted to talk about Unicef, they shouldn't have asked about you."

Though Marinette sighed loudly, she couldn't hide her smile. "You know, Alya still brings it up whenever she runs into annoying journalists."

"Oh?"

"You should ask her about it. Apparently she once had to work with a fan of yours who had tried to sabotage her," a soft smile remained on Marinette's face as she looked at up Adrien. "Alya said the girl had a boyfriend and flaunted how much better he was than Nino."

"Did Alya make her cry?"

"Maybe a little. I mean she's basically condemned to run into people she doesn't like in her line of work, but I just think it's especially funny how that one turned out. You should have her tell you the whole story sometime. It ended with the girl falling into a fridge and knocking a pot of hot coffee onto their boss."

Adrien made a sound of agreement. His hand had made its way to Marinette's hip, rubbing soothing circles along her side. For a moment they sat in blissful silence, simply enjoying each other's presence, before Marinette reached forward to continue down the article.

" _Three: When Marinette wears Adrien's clothes."_

Immediately after seeing the accompanying photos, Adrien laughed. A compilation of six photos was attached, all candids depicting Marinette looking very small in one of Adrien's shirts or hoodies. "Princess, though I love the view of you in my clothes, perhaps you should stick to your own clothes when there are photographers nearby."

"But your stuff is comfier," Marinette pouted. "And you have pockets. Big pockets. Pockets that can actually hold things."

"You can make yourself pockets."

"Well maybe photographers should leave me alone," Marinette poked Adrien's cloth-covered stomach in retaliation for laughing at her.

"In that case, henceforth I vow to defend you from the vicious cameras, my lady." Adrien brought Marinette's hand to his lips to place a soft kiss on it.

As Marinette giggled, Adrien continued down the page. "Wow, we're almost at the end! _Two: When Adrien and Marinette set up a foundation together._ "

"Well that was purr-etty great of us, if I do say so myself."

Marinette rolled her eyes, "You only like it because the Purrity Foundation is a pun."

"A life saving pun!" he defended, looking at the attached photo. It was him and Marinette surrounded by human trafficking victims and cats. At least a couple dozen cats. Not long after they gave up their miraculouses, Marinette fell into a deep depression when she realized she no longer had a constant companion to occupy her free time and defend others. She was struggling to come to terms with the fact that Marinette wasn't able to help people on the same scale as Ladybug could. To cheer her up, Adrien established the Purrity Foundation in her name. As a successful model and designer, they had more than enough money to make a difference. So, Marinette decided she wanted to help victims of human trafficking. And Adrien decided that therapy cats were a great idea.

And somehow, it worked.

"I'm glad they're doing okay now," Marinette smiled.

"The cats or the humans?"

Elbowing Adrien in the gut, Marinette said, "Both. The kitties get happy forever homes and the humans get a companion and validation. I'll mock your choice in name forever, Chaton, but thank you for Purrity." She sat up to give Adrien a kiss.

"Anything for my lady." Tucking a stray strand of dark hair behind her ear, Adrien cupped her cheek to kiss Marinette again. "Though the name is purrfect!"

Ignoring Adrien's comment on the name, Marinette continued reading. " _One: when Adrien and Marinette got married."_

"Of course it's our wedding," Adrien groaned.

With a raised eyebrow, Marinette looked at Adrien with a questioning gaze. "Are you surprised? The media goes insane over every wedding."

"They didn't even get photos of our wedding! They didn't even know it happened until a week after when we shared a photo online ourselves. They only have that single photo from our wedding!"

"Actually," Marinette interrupted Adrien's tirade, "they have two photos. Alya posted a picture of my bouquet on her blog when she wrote the post congratulating us." The picture in question had simply been another flower photo in the internet at first, until a fan made the connection between the bouquet Alya posted and the bundle of flowers in Marinette's hands in her wedding portrait.

"The point is," Adrien huffed, "we are plenty romantic! What about every time I open the door for you or hold your purse. Or that time I did your hair for an interview! That is plenty romantic! Anyone can get married, but only _my_ lady has a husband who can give her a perfect hairstyle!"

"My hero," Marinette giggled, wrapping her arms around Adrien's waist. "I hope you know, the only reason I married you was so I would never have to do my own hair."

"Really now?" Adrien smirked, previous irritation gone. "And here I thought it was for my feline fine looks. And for my a-meow-zing puns, of course." As he finished speaking, Adrien dug his fingers into Marinette's sides, tickling her.

"Minou! Adrien! Ah!" Marinette shrieked.

Once Adrien's tickling fingers retreated and Marinette regained her breath, she straightened her shirt and grinned at Adrien. "I'll get you back for that!"

With a wink, Adrien smirked back. "I'll hold you to that."

* * *

 _First and foremost, I know almost nothing about the fashion industry and have never watched any runways or anything but based on what google and the official PFW site tell me, Paris Fashion Week happens twice a year in late February and September for women's fashions. Men and Haute Couture is in January and June. I imagine this as a direct follow-up to Arsenic, which has our favourite kitty modelling our favourite bug's line. So, that would have been the January show._

 _Carnival is like a Canadian Mardi Gras basically. We have a bonhomme, lots of maple syrup, hot chocolate, various impressive snow sculptures, horse sleighs, and the like. Also, lots and lots of maple syrup. Nomnom. ((Also there's a lot of snow. It's mid-April and it snowed about six inches the last two days ;w;))_

 _And yes, Purrity is a play on Purity. I'm terrible at puns I'm sorry English isn't my first language ^^;;_


End file.
